Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Family:

Mervyn Moss Angel was born in Gawler on the 26th of May, 1880. On the day of his enlistment Mervyn weighed 150 Lbs (68 Kg) and was 5’6” tall. He had dark brown hair, hazel eyes and a dark complexion. Mervyn was the 7th of 12 children born to Alfred Thomas Howell Angel and Maria Brechin (nee) Taylor. Mervyn’s father, Alfred was born on the 17th June, 1845, in Bristol, England. In 1853 he arrived in Melbourne, Australia and then moved to South Australia. He was a printer/compositor. Alfred died on the 7th February, 1921. Mervyn’s Mother, Maria was born on the 26th June, 1845, in Brechin, Scotland. She arrived at Pt Adelaide on the ship Mary Shepherd on the 9th January, 1863. She was a milliner. They married on the 26th March, 1869 in Adelaide. Maria died on the 8th March, 1932.

Service at War:

At the time of enlistment Mervyn was living in Norwood and was employed as a Civil servant, working for the government. He was 37 years old when he enlisted for WWI on the 29th of August, 1917 in Gawler. Mervyn was posted to B Company, Mitcham, Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC) for training from 1/10/17 to 9/10/17. Mervyn was then posted to Fovant (England), Sutton Veny and Tidworth.

Fovant 1918

On the 5th of June, 1918, Mervyn embarked as a member of the AAMC from Sydney, on-board the HMAT Orontes and disembarked at Liverpool, England 11 /08 /1918. The next day he was shipped to Fovant on the Salisbury Plain in southern England where WWI camps were established. It was here where severely injured soldiers were treated, then relocated or discharged from the war. One of the several camps was Hurdcott Camp, which was a depot of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). Mervyn spent the most of his time during the war at Fovant, where he was an Orderly.

The jobs carried out by the medical orderlies during WWI were transporting patients around the unit, preparing patients for and assisting with surgery, dispensing drugs and guarding and treating men in isolation units. Orderlies also collected food and firewood, recorded the names and units of men as they arrived at the hospital and ran unit baths. This last job involved the organisation of washing, delousing and reissuing uniforms for a very large number of men. These labours were highly physically demanding and did not receive much recognition or respect from either medical, military personnel or the soldiers themselves. Like the men who volunteered for the Volunteer Training Corps on the home front, the medical orderly was portrayed mockingly in popular media as unfit or too old for front line service.

Sutton Veny, 1919

On the 1st of June, 1919, Mervyn was transferred from Fovant to Sutton Veny. Sutton Veny was an ideal location to barrack troops in order for them to train prior to deploying to northern France. In 1915 a hospital camp opened for 11 officers and 1261 soldiers, and in December that year No.1 Australian Command Depot moved to Sutton Veny where it remained until 1919. After the Armistice, No.1 Australian General Hospital was transferred to Sutton Veny where it remained until the end of 1919.

Greenhill House (Sutton Veny House today) was a YMCA for the many Australian troops in the area. It was in the middle of the largest Australian Imperial Force training and convalescent depots in Great Britain. This mansion, contained over 50 rooms and with spacious lawns and grounds, offered ideal possibilities for rest and recuperation for war weary troops. In late 1918 and 1919 Spanish influenza was particularly virulent and many Australians and prisoners of war died.

Tidworth Camp

On the 6th of August, 1919, Mervyn was transferred to Tidworth, where he was posted to the 5th Field Ambulance. Tidworth camp, in Wiltshire was a military hospital.  The Camp was established when the War Office acquired Tedworth House and large fields of land to the north of the house in 1897. Southern Command was established at Tidworth Camp in 1905.

When he was transferred his records show T.O.S. (taken on strength) Perm (permanent) Cadre (compliment of officers and non-commissioned officers to train the troops). This shows that Mervyn was well regarded by his superiors. The members of the 5th field ambulance did not have any real education in medicine. However during preparation, they were trained to administer basic first aid.

WWI The Western Front

In March and April 1918, the Australian Corps played a prominent part in the defence of Amiens, Hazebrouck and Villers-Bretonneux, during a massive German multi-pronged attack in France and Belgium known to history as the Kaiserschacht or the Spring Offensive. The German offensive was halted and the Allies mounted their own offensive from July. Following a successful Allied attack just east of Amiens in August, which featured the Australian and the Canadian Corps operating side by side, the Australians were engaged in a number of battles as the Allies drove the Germans back towards eventual defeat. The 5th Field Ambulance had clearing stations at Mont St Quentin and Montbrehain. The stations were operated until the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918.

Between 1916 and 1918, the AIF strength never fell below 117,000 men. Of 181,000 casualties for three years more than 46,000 died and 114,000 were wounded. 16,000 gassed and almost 4,000 taken prisoner. Australia suffered the highest number of deaths of all of the British Commonwealth army’s with a total of 145 out of 1000 men mobilised.

An excerpt from the diary of an unnamed 5th Field Ambulance soldier, quoted in AG Butler, The Western Front, Vol II, Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services, 1914–1918, Canberra, 1940, pp. 149–150

‘… the road was packed with stretchers and walking wounded … Fritz shelled our track from one end to the other, on the second trip one of my squad was hit in the thigh, we carried him out and got another man. On our next trip another of our squad got a small piece of HE (high explosive) in the leg but carried on … We went on throughout the day. At dusk a HE shell wounded two of the rear squad and hit our patient. We hurried on and returned but found that another shell had killed one of those previously wounded and wounded the patient and another bearer … At night we were relieved.’

Mervyn’s return to Australia

Mervyn returned to Adelaide on-board the Konigen Luise on the 2nd of February 1920.  On the 26th of Feb, 1920 Mervyn was discharged from the Army.  He then married Gertrude May Norman on the 29th April, 1925 at St. Aiden's Church, Payneham.  They were both 44 years old. They did not have any children. Mervyn died of cancer on the 18th March, 1956 and was cremated at Centennial Pk cemetery.

Mervyn’s ANZAC spirit

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. By far, the most important quality of an ANZAC is mateship, this is the quality of undying support the men have for each other. Some might refer to this theme of mateship with the Australian slang: ‘I’ve got your back, Jack’.  Mervyn displayed his ANZAC spirit by his commitment to duty which in the end, even though he never attained a rank higher than private, he gained the respect of his superiors and was able to train others.